Spooky Leaders in the Workplace: How To Know if You’re Scaring Your Team Away
By Marla Skibbins and Marly DiFruscio
Halloween is fast approaching, bringing with it all things spooky — haunted houses, creepy costumes, and ghost stories. But while a bit of fright can be fun during the season, it’s important to make sure the horror stories stay out of the workplace. Vampires may not be real, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t sucking the energy, motivation, and creativity from your team!
Bad leadership doesn’t always resemble a horror movie villain, but it can still have frightening effects on morale, productivity, and retention. Here are three signs that you might be turning into the kind of workplace leader no one wants to follow.
1. Lack of Communication: Just like a ghost fading into the background, you might find yourself becoming invisible when your team needs you most. A lack of open, transparent communication leads to misunderstandings, confusion, and a loss of direction. Poor communication can also cost the company: business leaders estimate that each employee wastes 7.47 hours per week due to poor communication. That averages at about $12,506 per employee each year.
Maybe you're no longer giving important context, avoiding open dialogue, or failing to ask for your team's thoughts and feedback. Perhaps you've started delivering top-down directives without offering space for conversation or collaboration. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you might need to step out of the shadows and re-engage with your team.
2. Micromanagement: Like a puppet master pulling the strings, you might feel the urge to control every move your team makes. While it’s natural to want things to go perfectly, micromanaging stifles creativity, kills morale, and leaves your team feeling powerless. You may not think you're micromanaging, but ask yourself: Are you constantly steering your team’s direction? Do you take over tasks that should be theirs because the stakes feel too high to trust anyone else?
It’s easy to justify micromanagement under the guise of ensuring quality, but the truth is, nothing drains confidence and motivation more than having someone constantly hovering, overtly or subtly. Take a hard look at whether your fear of failure—either yours or theirs—is driving you to seize control. Remember, there's a difference between holding people accountable and choking their independence. If any of this sounds like you, cut the strings! Your role as a leader is to guide, not dictate. Empower your team by giving them the trust and autonomy they need to thrive.
3. Ignoring Feedback: You might catch yourself shutting down when receiving feedback-–becoming defensive or brushing off your team's concerns and suggestions. But this is a dangerous trap. Without a willingness to listen and grow, you miss valuable opportunities for improvement, and over time, this behavior can erode trust and engagement, leaving your team feeling unheard and undervalued.
More important than just hearing feedback is acting on it. Using feedback not only boosts your performance but also shows your team that their voices matter. According to a study by AllVoices, only 38% of workers believed their feedback would lead to real change. Even more concerning, 21% didn’t give feedback at all—either because there was no feedback system in place, they felt nothing would be done, or they feared repercussions.
By actively listening and acting on feedback, you assure your employees that their thoughts are both heard and valued. The best leaders are those who can accept constructive criticism—especially from their employees—and use it to drive action and improvement. Ignoring feedback helps no one and will ultimately hold back the growth of both the team and the leader.
Take a few moments to reflect on your behavior as a leader and how it impacts your team. Do any of these behaviors sound familiar? If so, it might be time to make a change! Leadership is a journey, and there is always room for growth if you're willing to put in the effort. After all, no one wants to become someone’s war story—the kind of leader that people remember for all the wrong reasons.
Fortunately, you don’t have to navigate this alone. Level Up EQ’s coaching services are designed to help leaders like you develop self-awareness, improve communication, and foster a healthy, engaged team. Whether you’re looking to avoid bad habits or transform your leadership style, we’re here to help you grow and succeed. Read more about it here.